Pick-up truck vehicles (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "pick-ups" or "trucks") are delivered from the factory with standard bottom or side hinged tail gates that lock upright to close off their truck beds. Such a tail gate may be unlatched and tipped back and down to a position essentially co-planar with the truck bed to expose the bed from the back end of the truck.
Although handy for many purposes, such standard tail gates are not openable and closeable from the cab or from any location other than directly next to and behind the tail gate. Furthermore, there are times when the tail gate must be removed but when it would also be desireable to close off the end of the truck bed. As an example of this, when a 5th-wheel trailer is to be attached to a mounting plate located in the middle of the truck bed, it may be the case that the tail gate must be first removed. In this example, it would still be desireable to close off the end of the truck bed after the trailer is connected.